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Q. Is AT&T going to fix Dead Spot, near Santa Rita and Valley?

Original post made
by AT&T poor reception, Danbury Park,
on Apr 19, 2014

Just got an orange postcard from City of Pleasanton.
Says Radha Sharma/AT&T (P13-2069) wants to "construct a wireless facility consisting of a roof mounted clock tower and ground mounted equipment area at 1811 Santa Rita Road."
I think that's the two story building behind the current shopping center sign that has the time and temp.
My Questions are:
Will this fix AT&T's disgraceful dead spot. Ever try to use the wireless from Safeway?
How soon will they start?
How can we find out more about "(P13-2069?">

Posted by john
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 19, 2014 at 4:23 pm

Last month a guy at the AT&T store on Hopyard said the city approved an antenna, but the current holdup is the FCC. There is some problem with too much overlap with other towers because Pleasanton waited too long to approve this tower.

Posted by jimf01
a resident of another community
on Apr 20, 2014 at 9:41 amjimf01 is a registered user.

AT&T would place a 200 ft tower in the center of town if they were allowed to. Make no mistake, the lack of coverage in places like Pleasanton is due to places like Pleasanton.
AT&T is well aware that the affluent areas are pots of gold for monthly fees from smartphone users, and they would provide more coverage if they could.

Tracy has a water tower near downtown with antennas on it. When they turned up LTE 4G service on that last year, my data speed downtown was clocked faster than my wi-fi at home. AT&T's 4G is blindingly quick, fastest of all the carriers, if they can place the towers to provide the coverage.

Posted by Bill
a resident of Pleasanton Heights
on Apr 20, 2014 at 10:00 am

Water towers are now allowable cell antenna locations in Pleasanton, and there are quite a few around the city. It would sure be nice for the phone companies to put them up. Cell signals anywhere in town other than right by the free way are abysmal.

Posted by Eric
a resident of Pleasanton Valley
on Apr 20, 2014 at 2:45 pm

I received a micro cell from ATT (Another Terminated Technician) for free because their service completely stinks in a large area surrounding Valley and Santa Rita. Heck, in Jensen Tract there is no service what so ever. ATT/SBC told me for a easily 6 years that they "have a project to be completed in the next couple of months and will make a big difference. It's never happened. I called them on it with documentation and saved a couple hundred on a micro cell for the home. At least at home I can receive calls with my iPhone now. The ATT store in Stoneridge Mall is a company store, they are the only ones that can do it. Go there and get yourself a free micro cell. Once they have to give away a bucket load of them at $200 a pop you can bet that cell service will happen. By the way, ATT's mark the spot app does nothing for you so says an employee, it just keeps you from calling ATT and complaining.

Posted by Downtowner
a resident of Downtown
on Apr 21, 2014 at 8:31 amDowntowner is a registered user.

AT&T's poor coverage of central Pleasanton is one of the reasons I switched to Verizon. I never knew whether the problem lay with AT&T, the City, the FCC, or property owners, but at some point I just didn't want it to be *my* problem. Verizon's service has been much better, and the only issue is that my business partner and a number of friends are still with AT&T. But I hope a new tower will indeed improve service in the Dead Zone.

Posted by Just Ditch AT&T
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 21, 2014 at 12:21 pm

I have news for you folks, AT&T is riddled with poor-coverage areas throughout California, not just is Pleasanton. They keep blaming it on the cities, yet other companies don't seem to have the problem. I had AT&T for 3 years, and it stunk in Pleasanton, it stunk in Fremont, it stunk in Milpitas, it stunk in Sunnyvale ,it stunk in Palo Alto it stunk in LA, it stunk in the Inland Empire, and most of I-5 between Tracy and LA. I switched to Verizon and all those holes disappeared.

Posted by DontBeFooled
a resident of Highland Oaks
on Apr 21, 2014 at 3:16 pm

Don't be fooled by the "Verizon solved all my problems" posts. We will have cell signal and reception issues with all the carriers, depending on our location. I believe the carriers are doing their best to provide coverage, in spite of all the government bureaucracy and red tape.

Posted by A.G. Bell
a resident of Pleasanton Valley
on Apr 21, 2014 at 8:57 pm

I live near Valley and Santa Rita; my personal Verizon phone gets poor coverage when I am in my house. My Sprint work phone doesn't work at all inside the house and sort of works outside if I stand in just the right spot. The problem isn't the carriers, it's the city and the NIMBY residents who won't allow the installation of antennas. A previous poster is correct that the phone companies would love to have better coverage and sell you more airtime.

Posted by Just Ditch AT&T
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 22, 2014 at 2:27 pm

Don't Be Fooled,
You may want to change your phone if you are having signal problems at Valley and Santa Rita. I have absolutely no problem with my phone using Verizon in that area. I also agree cities can do a lot more in permitting antennas, but AT&T too frequently uses that as an excuse for their lousy coverage.

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